The present invention generally relates to increasing the data capacity of a network connection between two devices. In particular, the invention relates to methods and other accommodations for increasing the data capacity of a network connection based on the network address to which or from which data is requested.
As more and more computer applications require multimedia files to operate, computer networks require more bandwidth to deliver large files from servers to workstations. Typically in a computer network, a network device will allocate a specific amount of bandwidth to individual workstations on the network. However, at any given time one workstation may not use any bandwidth, while other computers require more bandwidth than they are allocated. Because of this non dynamic allocation, some network users experience slow downloading and uploading of files.
For multimedia applications, this results in delays in video and audio signals, static on the screen, and the freezing of images. Additionally, for file transfers a slow network connection can increase the amount of time required to upload files wasting time and resources. If the problem becomes critical, the service provider may receive calls to their customer service center or lose customers all together due to slow network performance.